In this episode, we visit a cobalt refinery in Cobalt, Ont. that’s running on renewable power and doubling as a battery recycling plant. Electra Battery Materials bought the plant in 2018 and five years on, they’ve got the first cobalt refinery in North America, the only alternative for EV manufacturers who currently get their cobalt refined in China.

Toronto Star photographer Steve Russell and climate change reporter Marco Chown Oved went on a road trip through northern Ontario in the dead of winter. It was cold, blizzarding and icy. They travelled 2,300 km during the coldest week of the year. And they did it in an electric vehicle (EV).